Earth, Water, and Sky: A Naturalist's Stories and Sketches

By Paul A. Johnsgard

As I write this, I am sitting in a cabin at Cedar Point Biological Station in southwestern Nebraska. . . . The glorious elemental mixture of earth, water, and sky around me is the home of nearly three hundred species of birds, and comprises one of my favorite places in the world. Here no radio stations blare out the most recent results of meaningless sports events . . . no traffic noises confound the senses. Instead the wind is the unquestioned dominating summer influence. The prairie grasses bend willingly and gracefully before it, and the leaves of the cottonwood trees convert its breezes into soft music. Paul Johnsgard is one of America's most prominent ornithologists and a world authority on waterfowl behavior. In these popularly written, often lyrical essays, he describes some of his most fascinating encounters with birds, from watching the annual mating displays of prairie-chickens on a hilltop in Pawnee County, Nebraska, to attempting to solve some of the mysteries surrounding Australia's nearly flightless musk duck. Reflecting his worldwide interests and travels, the birds Johnsgard describes inhabit many parts of the globe. Grouping the birds by the element they frequent most--earth, water, or sky--he weaves a wealth of accurate natural history into personal stories drawn from a lifetime of avian observation. And, as a bonus, Johnsgard's lovely pen-and-ink drawings illustrate each species he describes.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 029274059X
• ISBN13: 9780292740594
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Length: 186 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Duck, Geese, Crane and Quail tales

University of Nebraska ornithologist Paul Johnsgard has written a bookshelf full of reference books, and in this collection of essays presents interesting stories of birds of the Earth (Quail, hummingbirds, bustards), Water (duck courtship, ruddy ducks, torrent ducks, seabirds) and Sky (cranes, trumpeter swans, Eskimo curlew). Johnsgard includes his own sketches to illustrate each chapter. Johnsgard enlightens us on the evolution of mating systems, for example when referring to hummingbirds "The gradual emancipation of the male from nesting duties may have thus sent into motion promiscuous tendencies in both sexes". The stories often have a personal take, for example of finding Bearded Tree Quail at a family in Puerto El Rayo, and it successfully breeding in New York. He includes tails of exotic birds he has studied, such as the Australian Bustard (the heaviest flying bird in the world). His chapter "The Gift of the Cranes" is the most poetic and soars above the commonplace with a story of his seven-year-old granddaughter to see the cranes on the Platte River.